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In The Crack-Up, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” This week we see the worst of American politics — and something far more hopeful, and in an unlikely place: prisons.
First the bad news.
Today, the SAVE Act comes before the Senate. This is the bill that could block more than 21 million Americans from voting, according to our research. The debate could last two weeks, and now is the time to make noise — the anti-voter forces are certainly doing the same. Public outrage made a big difference in stalling the bill the last time it gained momentum. You can help by contacting your senator.
Why this bill, now? President Trump, in the middle of a drive to undermine future elections, calls it his number one priority. The public has a different idea. A recent New York Times/Siena poll asked voters what they see as the most important problem facing the country. The war? The economy?
The percentage of voters who wanted Congress to focus on “election integrity” was . . . zero. I have read many polls in my years in politics, and I can’t recall seeing anything like that.
As the bill is debated, no doubt we’ll hear it is merely a “voter ID” bill. We don’t oppose voter ID. The Brennan Center proposed a version of ID a decade ago, and the Freedom to Vote Act included a provision as part of a pro-voter agenda.
But this legislation goes far beyond, say, requiring identification at the polls. The requirement to show a passport or birth certificate to register to vote would block many, many more American citizens from voting than any voter ID rule that has come anywhere close to passage. For what it is worth, the identification provision in the bill is more restrictive than the current rules in every state except Ohio. If implemented in this election, it would cause havoc.
We can also expect to hear much huffing and puffing about Senate procedures, more precisely the “talking filibuster,” in which opponents would be forced to hold the floor.
The Brennan Center has been unambiguous over the years. We don’t like the filibuster and think it should be reformed or even eliminated to make the Senate work better. But while it exists, I’m glad it is being used to stop this egregious anti-voter bill.
The newest version of the SAVE Act has been stuffed with bad ideas. It would require states to hand sensitive voter roll information over to the Department of Homeland Security to scrutinize. We already know that the federal government has requested — and, in some states, received — the ability to demand the removal of specific voters from the rolls. It could get worse: One amendment wants to effectively end voting by mail, as demanded by the White House.
Again, we must ask: Why this, why now? Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said the quiet part out loud. He posted a chart showing that the prediction site Polymarket now shows that “Democrats are the favorites to win control of the Senate in 2026.”
“Let’s turn this around—by passing SAVE America,” Lee demanded.
Yes, this all reflects an ugly strain in American politics. Crass, partisan, and performative, brute-force politics.
Something else is going on at the same time, far from the cable news studios on Capitol Hill. You’ll find this quiet progress in, of all places, American prisons.
Public safety is always a top concern. Crime spiked during the Covid-19 pandemic but has since plunged. That good news creates an opening for sensible policies.
Today, 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, a population larger than that of several states. Too often, American prisons make matters worse. They are brutal, violent, and do little to prepare inmates to return to freedom. Out of sight, out of mind.
But something interesting and encouraging is going on. Brennan Center experts traveled the country for the past three years talking to corrections officers, wardens, and people who are incarcerated. They found something surprising: reforms that work, “green shoots” of reform that have sprung up all over the country. We published our findings today.
Maine, for example, has provided education offerings, job opportunities, and mental health support for those incarcerated (most of whom are low-income and have substance abuse and physical or mental health problems). Initial data trends are promising, showing recidivism rates reduced by a third and violence rates decreased by 40 percent.
Similarly, in South Carolina, units for young adults that have been using a more humane approach to supervision saw a 73 percent reduction in the odds of being written up for violence and an 83 percent reduction in restrictive housing stays. These reforms have taken root in Republican-led states and in Democrat-led states. They make prisons safer and better places to work, too.
These programs and innovations can and should be replicated and scaled. In fact, they were done outside of the formal legislative process. At a moment when there is a hunger for solutions, this report outlines important recommendations that would actually make a difference. These are real changes to make our criminal justice system work better and our communities safer — right now.
So, that’s politics in 2026: a performative floor fight in the Senate as lawmakers paid by taxpayers work to deny their constituents the freedom to vote. And out there in the country, corrections officials who are trying bold, persistent experimentation to turn around a system that often seems immune to progress.
Let’s yell about the SAVE Act — and again, please contact your senator. But keep an eye out for what’s going right. As the president I worked for once put it, “There’s nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what’s right with America.”
